Complete your room decorating plan by following these steps

Use both creativity and efficiency to assemble the room of your dreams

You are now ready to more into the final phase, putting your room decorating plan together.

At this point, you have if you have followed this step by step outline, you have accomplished everything a professional decorator would have done. You are better prepared than 90% of the people who want to redecorate. Do not have heart failure now. You are doing great and are going to love the results you achieve with all this preparation by following these room decorating ideas.

Steps You Have Completed to this Point

• You are definite on the purpose of your room
• You have chosen your preferred materials
• You have your fabic and paint swatches
• You have decided on your color scheme
• You have chosen your room style
• You have your traffic pattern and room layout finished
• You have shopped for ideas and styles

Consider a Painted Ceiling to Add Interest to Your Room

First the ceiling. Are you happy with the look of it or do you plan to make changes? Ceilings do not always have to be plain white just because ceiling paint comes packaged that way. Depending on where you live and the atmosphere you want to create for your living room, a painted ceiling can add either warmth or coolness to your room, depending on the temperature of the paint you choose.

You should have your color scheme decided by now and are ready to tackle the wall treatment. You have decided if you prefer paint or paper and have a plan in mind for your walls.

If you are going to paint, not all walls have to be the same solid color. You could do three walls in a solid color and do some faux painting or texturing on a fourth wall.

If you have a special activity you like to do in one room, such as play a musical instrument, you could put special paper in only one corner and decorate that area with a musical motif. Your room decorating plan could include any small area that focuses on your special interest in this way.

A mixture of both paint and paper is interesting, using paint on one half of the wall, and paper on the other half. Separate these areas with a chair rail molding or a wallpaper border.

Flooring is Big in the Room Decorating Plan

The next large area to consider is the flooring. Have you decided on this yet?

When we moved into our home, the entire first floor was covered with ugly brown, matted carpet. It was just horrible. However, because of a limited budget and because the whole project just seemed overwhelming, we left it there for a long time.

This carpeting eventually dragged down my whole energy and personality. I stopped cleaning because I thought, "What differance does it make?" I hated to look at that carpet every day.

How I Fixed a Major Floor Disaster with Very Little Cost

One day I decided I'd had enough and couldn't stand it any more. I moved all the furniture out of the living room and totally tore up the carpeting. What fun and what joy to get that out of my room! Of course, now I had a real mess and my husband wasn't too thrilled when he got home either!

So, here was my solution. The only thing under the rug was hardboard. I sealed the hardboard and painted a border around the room. Then I stenciled the border. I had already purchased a large area rug when I made the decision to take matters into my own hand, and I now laid this down.

Viola! A not bad looking floor treatment for only the cost of some paint, an inexpensive area rug, and my time. I can't believe I lived with that ugly carpeting for two years. We have since laid down a hardwood floor, but that exercise in creativity has changed the way I look at things forever. Now whenever I start a new room decorating plan, I always focus first on the items that I really dislike. This gives me great motivation to move my room decorating plan on to completion.

A Major Lesson I Learned from this Mistake

If there is something you absolutely hate in your home, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Money is not the answer to every problem, and it shouldn't stop you from making your home the peaceful retreat you deserve. Sometimes any change at all is better than what you are living with. Dig deep and explore your creativity. Dare to go out on a limb. You may find a perfect solution to a design problem, just because you are no longer willing to settle for a drab and dreary environment. You may actually come up with some great room decorating ideas that all the neighbors will love enough to copy.

Furniture Arrangement is the Next Phase

Before you start your furniture arrangement, you should have the following worksheets completed:

1. traffic flow chart
2. a drawing of your floor plan
3. the room analysis worksheet
4. the space analysis worksheet

Here are some basic measurements for comfortable furniture arrangement:

• The ideal diameter for a conversation area is 8-12 feet
• Minimum size for a dining area for four people is 80 square feet
• Major traffic paths should be 36"-48"
• Minor traffic paths should have a minimum of 24"
• 22" should be allowed on each side of a double bed

Window Treatments are Next in Line

There are two aspects to window treatments:

1. Adding softness and interest to your room
2. Controlling light

Many people prefer no window treatments at all as they feel it will interfere with the flow of light, or block out a fabulous view. This is really too bad, because window treatments can add a wonderful accent to your room decorating plan.

Shades and/or blinds may be necessary in the bedroom to ensure privacy and darkness, but curtains can be a wonderful accessory in other rooms, without hiding the view or blocking the light.

Curtains do not have to cover windows. They can be hung on the outside edge of the window area to keep the light and view from being obstructed. By hanging them this way, they are still available to be opened and closed to provide privacy, coolness on hot days, and warmth on cold days.

Consider some type of window treatment for each and every window of your home. It will add softness, interest, and privacy that you will come to appreciate.

Last will be Accent Pieces and Accessories

The final touch, the icing on the cake, the cherry on the sundae, will be your accessories.

The accessories and accent items you choose to use in your home are the final pieces to the jigsaw of your personality. They are the clues to the world of the inner you.

Are you artistic or musical? Are you crafty and DIY? Are you a collector dolls, train memorabilia, or maps? Are you a homebody, an outdoorsy type, or a sports fan?

Everything you place in your home is a reflection of your tastes and personality. If an item you have displayed for the past five years no longer interests you or reflects your current lifestyle, get rid of it!

Display only items you love, even if it means packing away grandma's collection of butter dishes, or Aunt Emily's swizzle stick collection. Go through your house and throw out, give away, or sell on EBay all the miscellaneous stuff you have been dusting for years that has no value to you. You may be able to discard over half of your accessories and at the same time discard all the guilt feelings that come with keeping all this stuff.

In the final analysis, as always, use your room decorating ideas to please yourself and other household members only. Create a home that is uniquely yours and that you will constantly enjoy returning to.

Create a peaceful, unique, harmonious environment, and you will find this peace extending out into your life and into your world. And that in the end, is all that matters.